Day 13: Yellowstone National Park & Dubois WY

Day 13 we woke up to thunder just before our alarm clock went off. We peered outside only to find the sky pitch black with rain clouds. While going back and forth as to whether or not to beat the rain and pack up all our gear it started to rain...then pour. So, in Miles fashion, we went back to sleep. We woke up again just in time for the rain to stop. We ate a quick breakfast of poptarts and packed up our gear and headed on out to Yellowstone National Park.

Driving out of Cody, WY and into Yellowstone was through a canyon, again with wonderful rock formations. It was a really nice ride. After about an hour we hit the park. Our Nat'l Park Pass saved us $25 this time. Driving into the park was great too, lots of green lush pines. Again, we ran into a dare-devil wildlife, this time a chipmunk who just barely missed our tires.

We went a little further before stopping to eat lunch at a picnic area we had identified on the map. Right as we turned into the area, which was wooded on the south side with a field on the north, we saw a herd of Bison. (Interesting fact: There are only 2 types of buffalo, the Asian Buffalo and the African Water Buffalo. The American 'Buffalo' is actually a Bison, but the terms are used interchangeably acceptably). We found a picnic table and enjoyed our Lunchables with the Bison. It was right along a river and quite serene and beautiful despite all the other people picnicing there.

  It got real interesting right as we were packing up to leave, as one Bison decided to really join us (not the one in the sunglasses :-D )

 

All over this picnic area are signs posted about how there is an aggressive coyote frequenting this area and that if you should encounter him to immediately pack up and get in your vehicle. Naturally, just as we were packing up, this coyote decides to show up too. Actually he was beautiful, a blonde/grey coat, much lighter and bigger than the ones back home:

We moved on to see the Mud Volcano and Sulphur Caldron. Along the way we could really see the bison up close. The Mud Volcano and Sulphur Calrdon are both areas of geothermal activity. Both were very stinky. Where we were in the Mud Volcano area, a Bison wanted to join the fun and walked right through the walkway area, then the parking lot. This was the area that Devin remembered his phone has the deal where you can take pictures and see the picture while you're taking it....makes it a lot easier to get pics of both of us (at least when the sun isn't in your eyes)!

 Not too much further up the road a bison crossed right in front of us, only one car between us and him. We traveled on to see the Upper Falls area, then on to Norris Geyser Basin It was a really cool area full of geysers, fumeroles and steam vents. 

 Now this was where it started to get interesting. We made the small error of ending up there on a Saturday. There were a million people there and traffic was rough. About three quarters of the people were from other countries. Not that it's a problem until they don't follow the rules or common courtesy.  They weren't very polite in letting others see or get pictures...no big deal. But at this location, where there were signs EVERYWHERE in multiple languages about staying on the pathways, it's dangerous and damages the park, there were a group of older foreign men who blantantly disregarded these signs (even the ones in pictures that had the guy walking and a big red circle/line through it) and walked all over the area, even getting in the water and splashing it on their face. No biggie? Except the water has a pH of 1, the equivalent of stomach acid. These geysers have a very interesting ecosystem, full of thermophiles (heat loving bacteria), which turn the areas a beautiful array of colors. So let's walk all over them and destroy them...grrrr. Devin and I were both very upset. Respect the park so everyone can enjoy. We seem to run into these types of people everywhere (remember the prairie dogs?) Devin told the park ranger as we were leaving. Anyway...

We continued on, looking at 'artists paintpot' and viewing mostly from the road. It was hot and we were getting tired. We went to Old Faithful and ended up just in time for the big event. Super cool.

 After that we figured we secure our nights' stay, which we had planned to do in Jackson. He called and it was going to be $40 for one night. No way, not in a tent. We called to the next closest KOA about 50 miles away. We had heard from another that it was a really nice place and that they were going to stay there too. We got our reservation there.

We stopped at the beautiful Yellowstone Lodge just to see inside. We had seen it on TV in July. It was really cool...looks like something out of Beauty and the Beast. 

On our way out of the park we crossed the Continental Divide (actually twice). We had just about missed it the second time when he pulled over to let a car pass us and it was right there.

 He's there...can you find him?

 Yellowstone connects to Grand Teton National Park on the south. We had to cut through it to get to our camp. Up to this point we were a little disappointed that we hadn't seen any other wildlife. Then all of a sudden a car was stopped in the middle of the road and on the right was a whole herd. Once we got out of the parks we thought it would be an easy ride. But the air kept getting colder, the road longer, and the sky darker. We saw two more moose along the way and encountered ANOTHER dirt road...this time they had pulled all the asphalt up from the highway. It was only 5 miles or so...

We made it to camp just in time. We barely had the tent up before it got dark. As we opened the trailer we smelled the unmistakable smell of sunscreen. See, I had moved it to the trailer from the trunk that day because we bought the new better stuff and can always use the trunk space. Apparently the spray sunscreen hadn't been turned off, or somehow got turned back on and had been spraying all over the place. Luckily it got mostly on dirty clothes and the bag, which didn't let it into clean clothes. We had to leave both out all night to air out.

We were starving by now. And we were really cold. We had brought some soup with us where you just add water and were really looking forward to having chili, until we saw you "just add water...and tomato paste". He pulled out our little grill for the first time and worked hard to get the fire going but with the wind it didn't want to.  We just wanted to boil some water...It eventually took and we heated our water and made our soup and some toast and ate it together, all bundled up in the dark. It was actually not half bad. We took long, hot showers before going to bed. The campground attendant said it was supposed to dip into the 40s so I wore 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of pants, a short sleeve, long sleeve, and sweat shirt. It was a long day...

Day 13 we traveled 272.6 miles for a total of 3204.9 miles across America.